Nutrition Books by Faculty

Recent books about nutrition and health, written by faculty from the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health.

In Maternal Obesity, Matthew Gillman M.D., S.M. and Lucilla Poston Ph.D. compile a comprehensive volume that outlines the health risks for obese mothers and their babies and suggests solutions and preventative measures for health care providers and policymakers to combat this growing challenge.

In Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life (HarperCollins, 2010), renowned spiritual leader Thich Nhat Hanh and Harvard nutritionist Lilian Cheung, D.Sc., R.D. combine timeless Buddhist wisdom with nutrition science to deliver a new and insightful perspective on how people can end their struggles with weight for good.

Obesity Epidemiology(Oxford University Press, 2008), by Frank Hu, M.D., Ph.D. provides an in-depth look at the latest research on all facets of obesity—its definition, measurement, causes, and consequences.

Eat Well & Keep Moving, Second Edition (Human Kinetics, 2007), by Lilian Cheung, D.Sc., R.D., Hank Dart, M.S., Sari Kalin, M.S., and Steven Gortmaker, Ph.D. is a school-based program that equips children with the knowledge, skills, and supportive environment they need to lead more healthful lives by choosing nutritious diets and being physically active.

InEat, Drink, and Weigh Less(Hyperion, 2007),Mollie Katzenand Walter Willett, M.D., Dr.P.H.team up to provide a flexible weight loss plan with more than 100 delicious and healthy recipes, to help keep the weight off for good.

Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy(Free Press, 2005), by Walter Willett, M.D., Dr.P.H. with Patrick J. Skerrett debunks dietary myths, gives a comprehensive review of current nutrition research, and debuts the Healthy Eating Pyramid, a healthier nutrition guide than the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s MyPyramid.

Nutritional Epidemiology (Oxford University Press, 1998) by Walter Willett, M.D., Dr.P.H. is a detailed review of epidemiological research on the complex relationships between diet and chronic diseases.

Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life

In Savor (HarperCollins, 2010), renowned spiritual leader Thich Nhat Hanh and Harvard nutritionist Dr. Lilian Cheung combine timeless Buddhist wisdom with nutrition science to deliver a new and insightful perspective on how people can end their struggles with weight for good.

Science tells us that to lose weight, people must eat less and exercise more. But somehow people get stalled. They often start on weight-loss programs with good intentions but cannot stay on track. They may find that they are caught in a cycle of shame and guilt, spending countless hours worrying about their food and activity choices, blaming themselves for actions that they can’t undo. Hanh and Cheung explain that when people are stuck in the past, they are unable to live in the present—that moment in which people do truly have the power to make changes in their lives. It is the awareness of the present moment, the realization of why we do what we do, that enables us to stop feeling bad and start changing our behavior.

Offering practical tools, including personalized goal setting, a detailed nutrition guide grounded in the latest science, and a mindful living plan, Savor helps readers uncover the roots of ingrained habits and then guides them to transform their actions. Savor teaches how to easily adopt the practice of mindfulness and integrate it into eating, exercise, and all facets of daily life.The book’s goal is to not only help readers achieve healthy weight and well-being, but also to bring to the surface the rich abundance of life available in every moment.

Thich Nhat Hanh is one of the best-known and most-respected Zen masters in the world today, a poet, and a peace and human rights activist. Lilian Cheung, D.Sc., R.D., is a lecturer and Director of Health Promotion and Communication in the Dept. of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, and editorial director of The Nutrition Source. More information on Savor is available at SavorTheBook.com.

Table of Contents

Part 1: A Buddhist Perspective on Weight Control

Chatper 1: Ending Your Struggle with Weight

Chapter 2: Are You Really Appreciating the Apple? An Apple Meditation

Chapter 3: You Are More Than What You Eat

Chapter 4: Stop and Look: The Present Moment

Part 2: Mindful Action Plans

Chapter 5: Mindful Eating

Chapter 6: Mindful Moving

Chapter 7: Mindful Living Plan

Part 3: Individual and Collective Effort

Chapter 8: A Mindful World

Eat Well and Keep Moving

Eat Well & Keep Moving, Second Edition (Human Kinetics, 2007) by Dr. Lilian Cheung, Hank Dart, Sari Kalin, and Prof. Steve Gortmaker is a school-based program that equips children with the knowledge, skills, and supportive environment they need to lead more healthful lives by choosing nutritious diets and being physically active.

With childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes on the rise, many curricula have been developed in recent years to promote child health. But all take a back seat to Eat Well & Keep Moving, Second Edition. This skill-building approach to motivating upper-elementary students to eat better and stay active began as a joint research project between the Harvard School of Public Health and Baltimore Public Schools. Today the program is used in all 50 states and more than 20 countries, and it won the Dannon Institute Award for Excellence in Community Nutrition in 2000.

Eat Well & Keep Moving, Second Edition is a comprehensive, multifaceted program that encompasses the classroom, the cafeteria, and the gymnasium and includes tools to involve the family and the community. This program differs from most in that it addresses nutrition and physical activity simultaneously. And it’s proven to be effective at combating a major factor related to childhood obesity: too much time in front of the TV screen. In extensive field tests among students and teachers using the program, children ate more fruits and vegetables, reduced their intake of saturated and total fat, watched less TV, and improved their knowledge of nutrition and physical activity. The program is also well liked by teachers and students.

The program uses existing school resources, fits within most school curricula, promotes literacy across disciplines, contains camera-ready teaching materials, and is inexpensive to implement. You can integrate the lesson plans into core subject areas—for example, you can teach nutrition and physical activity in math, language arts, and science classes. You can easily incorporate the materials into any class you teach, regardless of your current knowledge of health topics.

The six components of the program—classroom education, physical education, school-wide promotional campaigns, food service, staff wellness, and parent involvement—work together to create a supportive learning environment that promotes learning of lifelong good habits. With this complete resource, you can teach students about nutrition and fitness in your classroom—and launch an effective school-wide program if you desire to. Eat Well & Keep Moving can also be part of your school’s efforts to meet federally mandated school wellness policies.

With Eat Well & Keep Moving you get

46 lesson plans and microunits;

a CD-ROM from which you can print lessons, units, and over 300 ready-to-use worksheets;

fun and engaging school-wide campaigns to encourage kids to walk, watch less TV and reduce other screen time, and eat more fruits and vegetables;

FitCheck, a self-assessment tool to help students track their activity levels; and

Obesity Epidemiology

Obesity Epidemiology (Oxford University Press, 2008) provides an in-depth look at the latest research on all facets of obesity—its definition, measurement, causes, and consequences.

Authored by Dr. Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health, with contributions from invited experts, the book begins with an introduction to the research methods that epidemiologists use to tease out the scope and causes of the obesity epidemic. It reviews the latest literature on the link between obesity and increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and mortality. And it takes a chapter by chapter look at obesity’s risk factors, including diet, physical activity, sedentary behavior, and genes, as well as the newly emerging risk factors of sleep deprivation and intrauterine environment.

With its practical information on study designs and methodological challenges, the book will be an invaluable reference for researchers and graduate students. Public health practitioners will also find the book to be a useful guide to state-of-the-art research on the chief determinants and consequences of obesity.

Dr. Hu is a Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology in the Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health. He also serves on the Editorial Committee for The Nutrition Source Web site.

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The aim of the Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition Source is to provide timely information on diet and nutrition for clinicians, allied health professionals, and the public. The contents of this Web site are not intended to offer personal medical advice. You should seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this Web site. The information does not mention brand names, nor does it endorse any particular products.